Fitting garment



May 15, 1962 M. M. FOSSEY FITTING GARMENT 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 27, 1960 Mlba M. Fossey INVENTOR. Q0232.

BY m,

y 1962 M. M. FOSSEY 3,034,216

FITTING GARMENT Filed Jan. 27, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Melba M. Fossey INVENTOR.

M4062. BY w 5m United States Patent 3,034,216 FITTING GARMENT Melba M. Fossey, RFD. 1, Nickel-son, Kans. Filed .Ian. 27, 196i), Ser. No. 4,940 Claims. (Q1. 33i5) The present invention generally relates to a device for aiding in the construction of garments such as dresses, suits, jackets and the like by providing what may be termed a fitting garment for use in assembling and orientating paper patterns in an accurate and correct manner so that the material cut by using such patterns as a guide will provide an accurately fitting finished garment.

In present practice, a paper pattern is usually assembled by pinning at the shoulders and along the sides and the paper pattern is then held up to the person to be fitted to determine if the pattern is accurately fitted to such a person. This procedure is awkward and it is extremely dificult to obtain accurate fittings since it is hard to properly hold the pattern in place at the center front and center back and to make the necessary adjustments. In view of the difficulties in employing this fitting procedure for paper patterns, the finished garment quite often is ill fitting and generally is not as neat in appearance as it should be.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a fitting garment which will overcome the abovementioned shortcomings of the present practices and which generally is in the form of a tight-fitting elastic garment or the like having a tape attached at the center front and the center back thus enabling the paper pattern to be easily held in place by suitable clamps or the like for accurately adjusting the paper pattern to fit the person by virtue of attachment of the paper pattern to the fitting garment of the present invention.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a fitting garment that is actually form fitting and of elasticized material including means for enabling the garment to be easily donned by virtue of snap fasteners on the left shoulder thereby enabling paper patterns to accurately fit the right side of the garment since all paper patterns are made to fit the right side of a person.

Yet another feature of the present invention is to provide a fitting garment in accordance with the preceding objects which is extremely simple in construction, easy to use, efiective in operation and generally inexpensive to manufacture.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a front perspective view of the fitting garment of the present invention illustrating it in place on a person employing the device;

FIGURE 2 is a rear elevational view of the fitting garment of the present invention;

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of the fitting garment illustrating the details of the snap fastener elements on the left shoulder for facilitating use of the garment;

FIGURE 4 is a front view of the fitting garment illus trating a paper pattern attached thereto;

FIGURE 5 is a detailed transverse sectional view illustrating the relationship of the fitting garment and paper pattern as employed in FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 6 is a detailed sectional View taken substantially upon a plane passing along section line 6-6 of FIGURE 3 illustrating the manner of attaching the front center tape to the garment;

FIGURE 7 is a detailed sectional view taken substan- "ice tially upon a plane passing along section line 7-7 of FIGURE 3 illustrating further structural details of the center front tape and the garment; and

FIGURE 8 is a perspective view of one of the clamps employed for holding the paper pattern to the fitting garment.

Referring now specifically to the drawings, the numeral it generally designates the fitting garment of the present invention which generally is in the form of a tubular elastic member 12 that may be constructed of knit elastic material or any other highly pliable elastic material which will closely follow the contours of the body of the person 14 using the garment. The garment is of the pull-over type and is provided with a neck opening 16 at the upper center thereof together with arm openings 18 for receiving the arms 20. The left shoulder of the fitting garment 10 is provided with a slit 22 closed by a plurality of snap fastener elements 24 for facilitating the placement of the garment on the person 14 and the removal thereof. The garment generally may be considered as a sleeveless form fitting elasticized garment.

Attached to the center front of the tubular garment member 12 is a center front tape 26 which is preferably a cotton tape and the tape 26 is secured to the tubular garment member 12 by a plurality of vertically spaced rivets 28 or other suitable fastening means with the lengths of the tape 26 between the rivets 28 being free and with the edges of, the tape 26 being spaced from the rivets 28 as illustrated in FIGURE 6. The upper and lower ends of the tape 26 are further anchored by a pair of rivets 28 or other suitable fastening means. Extending throughout the length of the tape 26 is an index line or guide line 30 on the outer surface thereof which extends along the longitudinal center of the tape 26 thus marking or indicating the front center of the fitting garment and, of course, the front center of the person Wearing the fitting garment. The indicating line 30 may be a heavy black line or any other suitable colored line for ready discernment by a person fitting paper pattern components to the fitting garment such as paper pattern components designated by numerals 32 and 34 in FIGURE 5. When the paper pattern components 32 and 34 are secured to the fitting garment, the center front edge 36 is disposed in alignment with the center front index line 36 and the center back edge of the component 32 is aligned with the center back index line on the rear tape with the center back line also being indictaed by reference numeral 30 'and the center back tape being designated by numeral 26. A plurality of independently operated clamp means generally designated by numeral 38 are employed for clamping the components 32 and 34' to the tapes 26. The pattern components 32 and 34 may also be clamped at the shoulder by the same type of clamps 38 and the sides of the components 32 and 34- are pinned by suitable pins 40 thereby enabling the paper pattern components 32 and 34 to be accurately fitted to the garment and to the person wearing the garment.

FIGURE 8 illustrates the details of the clamps 38 each of which includes a clamp plate 42 and a handle extending angularly therefrom designated by reference numeral 44. A O-shaped leaf spring member 46 extends through slots 48 in the handles and engages the clamp plates 42 and urges them toward each other. The inner surfaces of the clamp plates 42 are provided with a cushion or coating of rubber or resilient material 50 for effectively gripping the paper pattern components and retaining the edges thereof in position. As illustrated in FIGURE 4, the clamps 38 have the lower clamp plate and lower cushion extended under the tape with the upper or outer clamp and outer cushion overlying the edge of the paper component thereby retaining the components in position as clearly illustrated in FIGURE 5.

Inasmuch as all paper patterns are made to fit the right side, the snap. fastener elements 24 on the left shoulder so. the pattern will fit smoothly and'in practical operation it has been found that the cotton or plastic tapes 26 may conveniently be one inch in width with the rivets being spaced three inches apart. The center front index line as well as the center rear index line may be a dark blue line formed on the tape in any manner and the underside of the garment is preferably reinforced with a cotton tape in the area of the rivets to prevent the rivets from. pulling. out from, the front. or back. The clamps may be constructed of any suitable material including metal, plastic or the like and these clamps are also useful when. forming the garment of fabric in order to hold the seams together while stitching. The tubular garment member 12. is made from tubular elastic material and may vary insize but due tothe stretch qualities thereof, only a very small number of difierent sizes would be required tov fit most persons.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles. of a the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is notdesired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents maybe resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention asclaimed.

Whatis claimed as new is as follows: 1. A fitting garment comprising. a tubular garment forming member having a neck opening and arm openings adjacent the 'upperend thereof and constructed of elastic. material for snugly fitting the torso of a wearer,

. a .center front tape attached to the center front of the garment, a center rear tape attached to the rear of the garment, eachv of said tapes having a longitudinal index line disposed centrally thereon for indicating the center front and center rear of the wearer thereby enabling paper pattern components to be attached to the tape with the center. front and center rear edges coinciding with theindex lines for enablingthe paper pattern components to be accurately fitted to the wearer, each of said tapes being attached to the garment only at longitudinally spaced points, and clamp means partially inserted under the tapes and adapted to engage .the edges of the paper pattern components to retain such components in position While fitting and pinning the free edges thereof.

2. The structure as defined in claim 1 wherein the clamp means includes a plurality of manually operated spring urged clamps, each including opposed clamping plates, and a resilient cushion on each of said clamping plates :for, grippingly engaging the tape and adapted to grip the edges of. the paper. pattern components thereby retaining the components in position during fitting.

'3. The structure as defined in claim 1 wherein the shoulder region of the garment is provided with an opening on the left side thereof extending between the neck opening and one arm opening, saidopening being closed by a. plurality of detachable snap fastener elements for facilitating the use of the fittinggarment.

4. A fitting garment comprisinga tubular garment forming member of elastic material adapted to snugly fit the torso-of a'wearer and provided with a neck opening and apair of arm openings, said garment member having front and back portions, a pair of vertical tapes provided on said front and backportions at the respective front and back vertical medial linesof the garment member, fastener elements secpring said tapes to said garment member, said fastener elements being spaced longitudinally along the tapes and disposed centrally thereof whereby longitudinal edge portions of the-tapes and lengths of the tapes between the fastener elements are free and detached from said garment member, and pattern retaining clamps sparably engageable with the free portions of the tapes.

5. The garment as defined in claim 4 wherein said tapes are marked with index lines extending longitudinally centrally thereon.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

